The dog days are over
by keenan24
Summary: 6x22 AU - Kai makes Bonnie an offer she just can't refuse


**XXX**

* * *

It starts like it always does in Mystic Falls.

With blood.

Some of it is hers, but most of the dark red staining the wedding is Alaric's and his father's. Kai's punishment for his sister. For forgetting that blood must always be thicker than water.

Like the resourceful trickster he's always been, he found his way back. Through broken bones and scarred skin, he crawled his used and abused body out of the hell he was supposed to rule over. His ordeal feeds the cold rage reducing the ceremony to a bloody chaos.

Bonnie can hear him approach her aching, battered form as air whizzes out of her punctured lungs. The sounds of his steps are muffled by the whimpers of bleeding guests and the cries of Salvatore vampires with lost limbs.

He crouches over her and smiles. He leans down and her green eyes widen in fury and fear. Then he binds her fate to his.

 **xxx**

The deal goes like this.

She stays with him and Elena lives.

She tries to escape, her friends die.

She will be allowed a week every three moons out of his reach

She doesn't come back, Elena dies.

Bonnie uses the little strength she has left to nod yes, and thinks it will be ample time for her to kill him once and for all.

"You can try", Kai answers, mirth dancing in his pupils. "But then, you'd kill Jo, the babies and the rest of my coven."

Bonnie's stomach sinks. The bitterness of defeat stays long on her tongue, like the aftertaste of curdled milk.

 **xxx**

She wakes in a modernly furnished room, bathed in sunlight. She blinks against the day's glowing ribbons and turns her head, eyes lured by a familiar brown tinge against the white walls. Her breath catches in her throat when none other than Ms Cuddles stares back at her, lifeless brown eyes making her shiver with the sense of déjà-vu.

Her green pupils register her healed wounds and study her surroundings. She's not far from her home. She can feel it and renewed hope steels her resolve. Damon will come for her, like he did the last time. All she has to do is play along and be ready when the time comes.

And Bonnie tries to do just that the first two weeks, while searching for a way out. She refuses to be anywhere near him. So he resorts to setting every day a tray full of food at her door and she waits for him to leave to eat the meals he cooked for her, cursing him for his forethought.

The first thing she learns is that her magic is constricted to the house she's trapped in. She comes to accept this when she blacks out, bleeding and exhausted, after trying spell after spell to send a message to her friends. She comes to in a haze, her blurry vision adjusting to meet the reproach in Kai's eyes as he heals her again.

"Could have just asked me", he lectures. His words bite and scratch at her wounded pride and Bonnie offers the most hate filled glare she can muster, willing her magic to hurt him. It only sends an electric charge that Kai swallows with a content smile.

He's at the door when he tells her. "He's not coming. With Elena in danger, he'll wait for you to come back and then try to set you free. Which… not the best idea. But when did he have good ones, right? Seems like you will have to take the matter in your own hands. As always."

Bonnie turns from him and tries to destroy that suspicious seed that Kai has just rooted in her mind. It only grows faster.

The next week, she tries to get the hell out of that place, multiple times, hatching plans or letting spontaneity take over. All to no avail. Her magic only ricochets back on the walls of the house and destroys some piece of furniture. The satisfaction that comes from tearing to pieces something that might belong to him is like a shot of ecstasy that never lasts long. When despair threatens to overcome her, the thought crosses her mind to just kill him and be done with it, Jo's twins and Gemini coven be damned.

A month passes and she tells herself that this is all part of the plan. Damon will wait for her to come back and they will take on Kai together. Bonnie clings to this sliver of hope, the lifeline that keeps her spirit afloat. She doesn't let herself get used to her presence in the house, to the feel of his magic in the air, always close but far enough to let her breathe.

She takes to wandering in his makeshift home, trying to commit every nook and hidden hole to her memory, just in case. Just in case the plan changes. She can sense Kai's mocking smile chafing the back of her neck, wherever she goes.

 _Tsk, Tsk, Tsk._ _Oh Bonnie, always hopeful Bonnie._

He leaves her some old grimoires, some ancient books of spells and even buys a Wii so she can pass the time. She burns the Wii to a crisp but keeps the books. His arrogance might be his downfall.

 **xxx**

Three months pass at long last and Kai waits for her at the entrance of the house, whimsy smile curving his lips, that doesn't quite erase the calculating glint always coating his dissecting eyes.

"Tell Elena I said Hi", he taunts and the minute she steps out, her magic rushes back in, giving her enough force to _motus_ him back inside the house. She sends a _vatos_ his way for good measure and runs as fast as she can, never looking back.

 **xxx**

There's another crisis waiting for her when she arrives in Mystic Falls. Its name is Lily Salvatore.

With the help of a witch for hire, she located the 1903 ascendant and managed to bring half of her adopted family back. It takes less than a day for her friends to fill her in and ask for her help as the Salvatore brothers battle their family demons. Elena and Caroline wring their hands in worry watching from the sidelines, trying to contain the collateral damage as much as they can.

Matt only knows anger now and is as always the one most honest toward her. "You should have stayed away", he says and Bonnie feels her heart constrict in response.

She almost dies sending the two heretics back into Kai's world. One of them forcefully siphons her magic as he is getting sucked back into the underworld. It is Caroline and Matt who save her. The blonde vampire snatches her away before the heretic is locked back into its cell.

But Lily stays. For Damon.

Bonnie can already hear Kai's snicker ringing in her ears.

The night before she is to return, she watches as the older Salvatore and Elena boastfully proclaim she will stay and to hell with Kai's demands. That seed that Kai had planted in her mind has grown into a harsh whisper that makes her question the true value of her life in her friends' eyes. Bonnie smothers the voice and nods in agreement, her relieved smile lighting up her tired features. She thinks about sleeping in, at the Salvatore manor. Prison world habits die hard.

And she needs rest to bring her magic back to its full potential.

The day of her return goes by and nothing happens. Another day and nothing. Damon snickers with a victorious _I told you so. That psycho will never take you away from us again._

The next day, Elena almost bleeds to death.

The doctors find no cause but they all know why and when Bonnie meets the apology in Damon's eyes, she only offers a snort and a tight smile.

 **xxx**

She finds Kai putting some luggage into a seemingly rented car. Exhaustion, anger and despair form a silent legion waging war inside her and she still needs her magic back in full force. The only thing that will protect her from him. He's already inserted himself in her head with his poisonous words and trickster ways.

Kai perks up when he sees her, his lips borrowing the traits of an innocent smile.

"How's Elena? Better I hope. Well, she should be better now, since you're here."

Bonnie wills her body to approach him in determined strides. She stops a breath away from him, eyes blazing, "Just a heads up. I will find the spell you put on Elena. I will free her and then I will send you back to be the Heretics' little bitch again"

His smile falters a little, his eyes turning blank and so cold, she has to suppress a shiver.

"That's not very nice" and Bonnie flinches at the harsh whisper of his words "Is this a way to talk to the one who saved you?"

She barks out a disbelieving laugh before setting steely eyes on him again, "Damon saved me. Your lies will not get you into my head".

It's Kai's turn to laugh. "Wow, so they didn't tell you. Figures. Some friends you have there, Bon."

And the voice he whispered into life in her head cackles and cackles, reverberating in her mind like a shockwave against her skull.

 **xxx**

They go to Portland.

And Kai tells her about the day she chose to live.

When they arrive, Bonnie calls Jeremy.

And something cuts at her heart when she hears his words.

 **xxx**

Portland is different from Mystic Falls. It breathes life, full of youthful energy that contrasts with Mystic Falls never ending sense of decay and standstill. Her very own prison world, now that she thinks of it.

Portland is vibrant, but in a peaceful almost nurturing way.

Colors assault her senses, pink, white, red and yellow. But mostly green. So much green that it makes Bonnie even more attuned to Nature's quiet humming.

Portland is everything the Gemini headquarters isn't.

 **xxx**

Kai keeps her away from Gemini business.

The Bennetts might have been old allies, but for now, she's not an ally they want. Not the sort that does vampires' bidding and befriends werewolves or plays with Expression. Even more so when their guest acts like a prisoner.

This is one of the rare matters on which both Kai and his coven agree upon.

For the rest, his rule is one of fear and intimidation. Oh, he has grand plans for his coven.

But even as a prisoner, Bonnie learns. She spends her days in the huge Gemini library that spans centuries worth of witchcraft. She uses most of her time to strengthen her magic and search for the spell Kai is using to keep her under his thumb.

The rest is spent getting acquainted to Portland, sometimes with a swollen Jo by her side, other times with Liv. Her personal guards, she comes to understand. Both women reluctantly concede that Kai is letting them play major roles in the coven's dealings. There is still hate there. But it is tangled with resignation. Or patience. _In a way, it is almost like being back to a home you don't quite remember_ , Jo says.

Bonnie hopes she can still call Mystic Falls home again. But for now, she'll have to stay here at least for three months.

The voice says, _think longer, Bonnie._

 **xxx**

Kai weirdly gives her space.

And the times he comes to visit her, she tunes out his presence and his words until he gets the hint and gets the hell away from her. He still brings her specific books of spells the sneaky bastard knows she will devour with rapt attention.

And she does. And learns more than she ever did back home.

 **xxx**

The plane back home is cold and eerily silent belying the chaos raging inside her.

She chalks the hint of reluctance at going back to the beginning of some weird case of Stockholm Syndrome and wills the memories of happy times in Mystic Falls back into her mind.

Instead, her thoughts go to the book of spell she snatched from the Gemini Library and brought back with her. She opens it and reads the Latin words.

 **xxx**

Mystic Falls doesn't seem to know her anymore and she feels the same.

Damon and Elena are no more, as everyone predicted. A newly single human Elena is always a dangerous proposition, especially to a still longing Stefan. Add the hovering presence of the Salvatore Matriarch dangling Enzo as adopted son in front of the children she bore to life, making Damon act out like the unloved child he's always been, and Bonnie finds herself trapped into another type of crisis.

She stays five days, enough to play savior to her friends against Lily's antics, pack her things and hug a teary Caroline and an encouraging Matt goodbye. She doesn't sell her home, nor her Grams house. She needs a reason to come back, after all. She can't let Kai win so easily.

 **xxx**

Anger seeps from her as she makes her way back to Portland, tail between her legs.

It ripens into unbridled rage when she meets Kai's satisfied eyes and knowing smirk.

She deposes her bags and challenges him to a sparring session. She needs to hurt him like he did her since he came back from his second prison world, as he keeps punishing her for locking him there, to be passed as food by the heretics his coven banished.

Kai smiles, this one reaching his eyes, and leads her to a secluded room underground, made of reinforced steely walls.

And they fight.

Bonnie lets her rage go and curls it around her magic to feed it and strengthen it. She sends blow after blow not caring if it could hurt or kill him. She just needs to make him bleed and have him bent and broken before her.

Kai doesn't pull his punches either, and Bonnie would have thanked him for that if she wasn't busy trying to tear him to pieces. The walls of the room twist and cave under the force of their magic battling each other. They do not break and still muffle the sound of the war waged in its confines.

Bonnie gets to strike the final blow but misses its target as they both stumble down, exhausted, bruised and bleeding on the cold ground.

They lay there, willing air back into their lungs, the rise and fall of their ribcage making them grimace in pain.

Kai is the first to stand onto his feet, he wobbles a bit and makes his way to her. He offers his hand and tugs her upward, helping her stand.

His huge grin is infectious and coaxes out a reluctant smirk from Bonnie. They make their way back to the infirmary, passing the raised eyebrows of Liv and Jo.

 **xxx**

They fight more and more.

The confrontations serve as their own form of training, using spells the other has no idea existed and sometimes testing spells they've just created.

It ends the same anyway. Both of them lying, spent, on the floor with a huge grin splitting their face.

And what was bound to happen occurs.

A misguided _vatos_ clashes against a mispronounced _motus_ and Bonnie collides into Kai toppling him to the ground.

She doesn't register how close she is to him until she tries to straighten and Kai's hands keep her against him. She meets his darkened eyes, and all falls into place.

She shivers when his hands make their way from her thighs to her waist, fingers snaking under her shirt and burning her skin.

Kai watches her, daring her to run away and Bonnie's pride flares bright in her chest and she catches his lips with her own in a bruising kiss. The silence is replaced by their ragged breathing as Kai rolls her around and eats her out like a ravenous man with barely restrained hunger, his mouth sucking and biting into the light brown skin, hands roaming her body, his fingers leaving a burning trail in their wake.

They fuck in the cold room, and it's rough and fast, as they are each selfishly, greedily taking their pleasure without thinking of the other. Bonnie rakes her nails on his bare back, bites his earlobe and squeezes her legs tight around him. Kai plows into her, fists her hair and fucks the orgasm out of her. She screams her climax when he shoves himself deep into her, pinches her clit and licks the salt of her cheek. She tightens her grip on his back, bringing him impossibly close to her, her breasts rubbing against his chest as she squeezes her eyes shut, and he rides her and the orgasm shocks her senses into sweet paralysis.

He comes just after and she doesn't let go of him until her trembling body pacifies.

 _God, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this._

His confession is her first victory over him in a long time.

 **xxx**

They fight less and fuck more since then.

Bonnie shivers as she feels Kai watch her intently every time he makes her come and scream his name. She closes her eyes, unable to meet his awestruck and satisfied intent gaze when he has her writhing, aching, under him and she retaliates by adding her mark to his back, and sucking on his earlobe to revel in the power she too has over him.

And three months pass quicker than she'd have thought.

She doesn't go back. So he lifts the spell.

Instead, Caroline comes to visit with Matt. The Blonde vampire only raises her eyebrows at the hickey on her neck and offers a mischievous smirk. She doesn't say a word however when she sees the warning in Bonnie's stern gaze.

Matt laughs and the three reminisce and talk. About everything but Mystic Falls. Caroline tells her she wants to leave, that there is nothing holding her back there and Bonnie realizes that Elena has won again.

An idea forms in her mind and she tells Caroline who beams before sobering at once.

 _What will Kai say?_

 **xxx**

Kai doesn't say much, although the grinding of his teeth lets her know what he thinks. That she's won the war, after letting him claim all the battles.

She's not the same Bonnie that he had caught in his claws a year ago. She's the one with the emotional upper hand now. He craves her, needs her, and maybe feels something beyond that, enough to make him craft a Machiavellian twisted plot just to have her by his side.

She doesn't love him (not yet) but she would lie if she didn't admit that they were both beneficiary to each other. That, she can acknowledge.

And he knows she's aware of what he feels for her. The proud smile he offers, as she flips the script on him and comes up with a new deal between them, is all the answer she needs.

And so Kai, coven leader and ruler of the underworld. for the first time, has to compromise.

 **xxx**

It ends like this.

Bonnie will leave for San Francisco, home of one Lucy Bennett with whom she will live along with her friend Caroline. Every three month she will go back to Portland, home of one Kai Parker, and stay with him for the same amount of time.

No life is bound to this contract.

On the eve of her departure, they fuck with a renewed urgency and hunger and Kai makes her toes curl, her head tilt back and her body tremble under the climax he coaxes out of her. It almost makes her rethink their agreement. And leaves her with enough to make her want to come back to him.

She's in the plane leading her to Lucy and she still has the taste of him on her tongue, want still pulsing and searing her lower belly when she unwraps the parting gift he gave her.

Bonnie grins, then laughs at what he offered her.

A pomegranate.

 **xxx**

* * *

 **Unbetaed - all remaining mistakes are mine**

 **Thanks for reading**

* * *

 **xxx**


End file.
